Remember the days when designing for the web your choice of fonts was limited to the standard system fonts, (Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Times, etc…). Well no more! With the new and improved Google Web Font directory there are now hundreds of fonts to choose from to customize the design of any website. You no longer have to embed fonts into applications so users will see the design how it was intended. Which also slows down the user’s experience. One of Google’s Web Fonts team’s core principles is that “fast is better than slow”, and the Web Fonts team takes that to heart.

Anyone who is an experienced graphic designer knows how important designing with a grid is. You can create a visual and structural balance within your design using a grid system. Basically designing with a grid is a way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guides, rows and columns. It has been used for years in newspaper and magazine layouts with columns of text and images and is now commonly used in web design. You can use a combination of grids throughout an entire project to achieve a consistent look and feel. Designing with a solid grid structure will help in creating successful design layouts in both print and web design.

Are you ever looking for cool retro fonts for your designs? Smashing Hub has allot of cool FREE fonts and other resources for your design needs. You can find almost any thing you need, get updates on the latest trends in design, digital art, photography, photoshop, web development, wordpress and much more. They have a ton of “Freebies” that may be useful when designing your next project. Or are you looking for inspiration? Well Smashing Hub also has all kinds of goodies to inspire you to create cool new trendy designs. These vary from photography, print & web design, typography or online search tips. Go to smashinghub.com now!

The designers toolbox website is a great resource for any graphic designer. There are tools for web and print so it does not matter what type of design you create, you will find what you need at the designers toolbox website. Do you ever wonder what the correct web safe area for the site as you are designing? What about standards for business cards or envelopes? The designers toolbox also has GUI design elements and iPhone elements all in layered PSD files. So check it out the next time you are looking for specific details for any creative graphic design job you have.

I have just ordered this book and look forward to receiving it. I am graphic and web designer with 17 years in the design industry and have just recently started learning the coding side of the web and interactive apps. I know HTML and CSS and some basic JavaScript, but I am looking forward to learning more to expand my creative knowledge. HTML5 is the longest HTML specification ever written. It is also the most powerful, and in some ways, the most confusing. What do accessible, content-focused standards-based web designers and front-end developers need to know? And how can we harness the power of HTML5 in today’s browsers?